The Hershey Bears returned to Giant Center after a tough road trip that yielded impressive results. After three games in essentially two-and-a-half weeks, the Bears turned around to take on the Lehigh Valley Phantoms for the first of ten games. In a low-scoring game, Jacob Gaucher’s third period goal proved to be the difference in a 2-1 final score. The miles logged and mounting injuries and recalls played a factor in a loss that worried head coach Todd Nelson.
Road Weary Bears
“Tonight’s game was concerning to me,” Nelson said after the game. “Coming off of the three-in-three with travel, there’s usually time to reset. That’s not why we lost, but it was a snooze fest out there tonight. Both teams were flat, they ended up scoring one more goal. That’s all it came down to, we had our chances tonight and couldn’t find the back of the net.”
“I think the trip caught up with us, I really do. I’m not making excuses, but that’s reality.”
It’s a fast turnaround for the Bears amidst a challenging stretch against Atlantic Division opponents. The Bears lost key players over the course of the trip, losing defenseman Hardy Haman Aktell to injury and Mike Sgarbossa to recall. Defenseman Ethan Bear did not dress, likely as an emergency option for Washington in the event they needed a call-up. That left Hershey with just six healthy defenders for Wednesday’s game. One of those players, Jake Massie, scored the only goal of the game for the Bears.
As Nelson mentioned, it’s far from an excuse but factored in on Wednesday’s loss. Hershey plays six games over ten days, all against teams looking to assert themselves in the division. Lehigh Valley is one of those teams, which earned just its second win of the season and first since opening night. It’s a stretch that will require more players to step up and contribute.
“Anyone. I’m looking for anyone to step up right now,” Nelson said. “We had some low-scoring affairs in Providence, that’s fine. We got the results we wanted. It’s going to be like that against Lehigh Valley all year, they’re very stingy.”
Checking the Checkers
Hershey will host the Charlotte Checkers for two games at home this weekend. It figures to be a major clash between the top two teams in the Atlantic Division after the first month of the season. Charlotte has the best points percentage in the division with a 5-1-0-0 record in addition to the league’s top power play percentage. They’ve had some hot scoring during that stretch, with Aiden McDonough and Kyle Criscuolo ranking in the top 20 despite far fewer games played.
“I didn’t say our team played horrible tonight, we were just off,” Nelson said. “We were flat. There are two tough games coming up this weekend against Charlotte, they play an aggressive style. Our tempo has to be extremely high.”
The Bears have had a good start to the year on the penalty kill to help counter the Checkers. Hershey has the league’s fourth best penalty kill at 91.4% efficiency, only allowing three goals in 35 situations. They’ve had a stretch of six straight games being perfect on the penalty kill, something the team takes great pride in.
“Our penalty kill was strong, it was strong all last year,” Nelson said. “We take pride in our special teams. (Assistant coach) Patrick Wellar does a good job with the PK, he’s going to study and get ready for the weekend. It’s going to be a tough weekend, we’ve got to guard against letting things slide. We’re 6-2-1, I get that, but this was a game I was concerned about being flat.”
Chocolate and White Fight
The Bears will need to rest well for the game, but the good news is that despite the circumstances, they’ve had plenty of fight. Hunter Shepard has been outstanding, boasting the best stats of goaltenders with more than five games played. The 2023 Calder Cup Playoff MVP has a 1.51 goals against average and a 0.949 save percentage.
Their scoring has dropped off, with only two goals or fewer in three of their last four games. They’ve won two of those games, showing their defensive strength and Shepard’s excellence. The Charlotte set this weekend represents a chance for Hershey to get back into form and play to their standard as Nelson mentioned.
On the injury front, the Bears are hoping to get some good news from their lengthy list. Defensemen Logan Day, Nicky Leivermann, and Jon McDonald are all progressing towards a return to action. Luke Philp continues to recover from injury sustained early in his second game with the Bears. Combined with Sgarbossa’s recall, the Bears are missing their top two centers with Philp on the shelf. Clay Stevenson missed the road trip with an upper-body injury.
